Boris Johnson accused of dismissing long Covid after scrawling 'b******s' on official advice documents
Boris Johnson, former UK Prime Minister, is seen during his visit to Ivan Franko National University of Lviv
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Boris Johnson dismissed long Covid by scrawling “b******s” on official advice documents, the public inquiry into the pandemic has been told.
The ex-Prime Minister scribbled the expletive in capital letters when the Department of Health & Social Care was issuing guidance.
Johnson, 59, was given a grilling by the Covid Inquiry as it heard evidence that the former Uxbridge & South Ruislip MP was “dismissive of disaster”.
Lawyers representing grieving families suggested it was “remarkable and unfortunate coincidence” that Johnson was unable to recover his WhatsApp messages for the first four months of the pandemic.
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They also questioned why the former Prime Minister could not recall a meeting with ex-Health Secretary Matt Hancock in January 2020.
Johnson was supposedly warned that a “very large number of people would likely die”.
Anthony KC, a lawyer acting for support groups such as Long Covid Kids and Long Covid SOS, claimed the former Prime Minister dismissed concerns about long Covid.
Metzer told the inquiry that Johnson initially “denied the truth of the suffering” of long Covid patients.
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He said: “In October 2020, while the Department of Health & Social Care was publishing guidance on long Covid and called for recognition and support for people with long Covid, then prime minister Boris Johnson scrawled in capitals that long Covid was ‘b*******s’.”
Commenting on Johnson’s witness statement, Metzer added: “Mr Johnson has admitted in his witness statement that he didn’t believe long Covid truly existed, dismissing it as ‘Gulf War Syndrome stuff’.
“The inquiry will be concerned to probe how the former prime minister could possibly hold this view in October 2020.
“It is perhaps noticeable that the former Prime Minister now accepts that long Covid is a serious health condition, but does not say when he changed his mind.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a visit to the Kent Oncology Centre at Maidstone Hospital in Kent
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“Adults and children were and still are suffering from debilitating, painful and terrifying symptoms for months and now years after infection, and yet Mr Johnson denied the truth of their suffering.
“The UK’s senior most decision-makers were dismissing, diminishing and disbelieving the very existence and risk of long Covid.”
Issues surrounding the recovery of Johnson’s earlier WhatsApp messages adds further fuel to a row from the summer about the Cabinet Office attempting to block the inquiry from accessing the material.
A spokesman for Johnson subsequently said that experts had recovered “all relevant messages”.